• Title/Summary/Keyword: Health facility environment

Search Result 286, Processing Time 0.03 seconds

A Study on Improvement of Distribution Facility in Wholesale Agricultural Products Market

  • Gal, Won-Mo;Kwon, Ki-Tae;Lee, Woo-Sik;Choi, Eun-Mee;Kwon, Lee-Seung;Seong, Seung-Hwan;Kwon, Woo-Taeg
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.16 no.2
    • /
    • pp.53-65
    • /
    • 2018
  • Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of gamma - irradiation on the effluent from food distribution in the large agricultural and marine products market. This study will contribute to the distribution process as well as the agricultural and fishery distribution facilities. Research design, data, and methodology - In order to reduce the odor, the smell was examined in the anaerobic digestion process by irradiating gamma rays to the wastewater of mixed food discharged from a large restaurant. An odor determination panel list was constructed to determine if the odor was present in the air dilution drainage and the odor concentration was analyzed by instrumental analysis. Results - It was confirmed that the sulfur content increased gradually from 3 months. Ammonia decreased from 33.57ppm at the initial measurement to 4.12 ppm at the end of the experiment. Methane production was highest at 100kGy when exposed to gamma rays of 0-200kGy at pH 12. In other words, it is considered that gamma irradiation doses are most effective at 100kGy and are suitable for large capacity wastewater treatment facilities in terms of economic feasibility. Conclusions - In pre-treatment of compound food wastewater, gamma irradiation is most cost effective when examined at 100kGy. The economic efficiency of the pre-treatment method by gamma irradiation is much higher than the wastewater treatment in the large-scale agricultural and marine products distribution market.

Workplace Violence and Safety Issues in Long-Term Medical Care Facilities: Nurses' Perspectives

  • Fasanya, Bankole K.;Dada, Emmanuel A.
    • Safety and Health at Work
    • /
    • v.7 no.2
    • /
    • pp.97-101
    • /
    • 2016
  • Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is becoming an issue that needs immediate attention in the United States, especially during this period as more states are adopting the "stand your ground laws to promote worker protection." This study was conducted to investigate how WPV has contributed to an unsafe environment for nurses and nursing assistants who work in long-term medical care facilities. Methods: A structure questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Three facilities were sampled and 80 nurses and certified nursing assistants participated in the study. Ninety-two percent (n = 74) were female and 8% (n = 6) were male. Approximately 62% were black or African American, approximately 33% were Caucasians, and only 2% were from other ethnicities. Results: We found that 65% of the participants had experienced WPV while 41% believed that management shows little or no concern for their safety. Approximately 23% of respondents believed that reporting supervisor's WPV act is an unsafe action. In addition, 22% of those who reported that they have experienced WPV believed that the work environment is not safe to perform their duties. This significant difference in perception of workplace safety between those who had experienced WPV and those who had not was significant (t = 3.95, df = 158, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: WPV is an epidemic problem that affects all health-care professionals. The findings of this study could help long-term medical care facilities' management identify the areas to focus on mitigating, controlling, and/or eliminating incidents of WPV.

Determinants of Patient Satisfaction and Intent to Revisit at National University Hospitals in Korea (국립대학교병원의 환자만족도 및 재이용 의사 결정요인)

  • Jung, Seung-Won;Seo, Young-Joon;Lee, Hae-Jong;Lee, Kyun-Jik
    • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
    • /
    • v.10 no.2
    • /
    • pp.1-25
    • /
    • 2005
  • This study purports to investigate the determinants of patient satisfaction and intent to revisit at national university hospitals in Korea. A total of 8 independent variables for outpatients, 9 independent variables for inpatients, and an intervening variable of overall patient satisfaction were selected through literature review. The independent variables for outpatients contain the level of satisfaction with physicians, nurses, ancillary staff, administrative procedure, medical cost, physical environment, facility convenience. and health recovery. With regard to the independent variables for inpatients, the quality of ward services was added to those of outpatients. Each variable contains 3 to 8 items measuring the level of satisfaction with various aspects of the variable. The sample used in this study consisted of 879 outpatients and 821 inpatients. Data were collected with interview survey and analyzed using path analysis. The major findings of the study are as follows: 1) The following variables have significantly positive effect on the intent to revisit of outpatients: health recovery, overall satisfaction, satisfaction with physicians, and ancillary staff. 2) The following variables have significantly positive effect on the intent to revisit of inpatients: health recovery, satisfaction with nurses and physicians, overall satisfaction, and administrative procedure. 3) The following variables of admission procedure, satisfaction with ancillary staff, facility convenience, quality of ward services were found to have significantly positive effect only on the level of overall satisfaction, even though they do not have significant total effect on the intent to revisit. The results of the study indicate that national university hospitals in Korea should make an effort to improve the satisfactory level of patients with clinical outcome, services provided by physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff, and the quality of administrative procedure for enhancing the intent to revisit of patients.

  • PDF

A Study on Water Quality Management Methods of Waterscape Facilities in Accordance Legislation of Water Quality Criteria (수질기준 법제화에 따른 물놀이형 수경시설의 수질관리방안 연구)

  • Na, Kyung-Ho;Yong, Jeong-Ju;Kim, Ji-Soo;Byeon, Ju-Young
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
    • /
    • v.33 no.4
    • /
    • pp.487-493
    • /
    • 2017
  • This study was conducted to propose measures of water quality management as the water criteria for waterscape facilities which have been highlighted as alternatives to wading pools in summer season was legislated. The number of public waterscape facilities has reached 290 sites in Gyeounggi province and 971 sites in South Korea in 2017. The water tank capacity of 80.3 % public waterscape facilities was less than $100m^3$. Facilities with disinfection system were only 6.5 % and facilities with filtration function were also very low at 6.9 %. Most of the waterscape facilities, about 93%, are expected to be vulnerable to complying with revised water quality criteria because they have to be disinfected by handling. Chlorine disinfectants, which are more persistent than ozone or ultraviolet sterilization methods, are more preferred. However, care should be taken when adding disinfectans because hypochlorous acid, which is an effective component of chlorine disinfectant, remains after the disinfection, but it is easily decomposed with time. For this study, ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ park floor fountain with a capacity of $63m^3$ was selected and the amount of free residual chlorine concentration was measured by injecting a certain amount of chlorine bleach. As a result, it took 5 hours to decrease from the water quality standard of 4 mg/L to 0.04 mg/L. If the waterscape facility is operated for 7 to 8 hours, the chlorine bleach should be re-injected after 5 hours. In addition, the problem of pH increase due to the input of chlorine disinfectant is expected, and the neutralization method using vinegar was proposed.

Evaluation of Water Quality Characteristics of Floor Fountains in Gwangju (광주지역 바닥분수의 수질특성 평가)

  • Kim, Jong-Min;Kim, Ha-Ram;Jang, Seo-Eun;Choi, Yeong-Seop;Kang, Yu-Mi;Jung, Sook-Kyoung;Cho, Young-Gwan;Kim, Eun-Sun
    • Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
    • /
    • v.43 no.2
    • /
    • pp.143-156
    • /
    • 2017
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate water quality through a field survey at six floor fountain sites. The floor fountain facilities were designed and operated in such a way that tap water was stored in a water tank and recycled repeatedly. The water tank was cleaned once or twice per week in the summer. The number of facility users was low during the day due to sweltering heat, but up to 40 people, mainly children, were using them around 8 pm. Since the operation time was as short as 30 minutes, it is considered necessary to extend it for at least one hour for the number of users. As a result of the water quality test of the reservoir tank prior to operation after cleaning, it was measured to be within drinking water quality standards at the six facilities. As a result of the water quality test after use, ammonia nitrogen was measured to be 1.45 mg/L at Site IV. This exceeded the drinking water quality standard of 0.5 mg/L. In the case of turbidity, two cases exceed at 7.38 and 4.52 NTU when applying 4 NTU as the water quality standard for waterscape facilities. Twenty-eight cases exceed the standard of drinking water quality. The result of microbiological tests, at five sites excepting Site I, where disinfectant was injected, was that the maximum total colony count was 180,000 CFU/mL, total coliforms was 2,100,000 CFU/100 mL, fecal coliforms was 4,600 CFU/100 mL, Escherichia coli was 170 MPN/100 mL and Enterococcus was 100 CFU/100 mL. This exceeded the water quality standards of drinking water. Children are very likely to inhale because the water spews from below and falls from above, so it is necessary to apply water quality standards for ammonia nitrogen, turbidity and microbes. Current floor fountain facilities are highly susceptible to disease caused by microbial contamination because of water cycling and reuse, so it is necessary to change the water every day, clean the water tank, and perform chlorination. Therefore, it is necessary to inject calcium hypochlorite according to the free chlorine water quality standard of swimming pools with a different water tank capacity. In addition, facilities should be improved to prevent the reuse of water by installing the water tank at a separate location.

Benefits of a Dedicated Breastfeeding Facility and Support Program for Exclusive Breastfeeding among Workers in Indonesia

  • Basrowi, Ray W;Sulistomo, Astrid B;Adi, Nuri Purwito;Vandenplas, Yvan
    • Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
    • /
    • v.18 no.2
    • /
    • pp.94-99
    • /
    • 2015
  • Purpose: A mother's working environment is believed to be a major determinant of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) practice. We aimed to define the influence of a facility dedicated to breastfeeding and a breastfeeding support program at the workplace on breastfeeding practice. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in five workplaces. The inclusion criteria were female workers whose last child was between 6 and 36 months old. Observational data were obtained and a questionnaire was filled out. The World Health Organization definition for EBF was used. Results: Data from 186 subjects (74 office workers and 112 factory workers) were collected. Just over half (52%) of the mothers were between 20 and 46 years old, 75.3% had graduated from high school and university, 12.9% had more than two children and 36.0% owned a house. The prevalence of EBF during the last 6 months was 32.3%. A proper dedicated breastfeeding facility was available for 21.5% of the mothers, but only 7.5% had been in contact with a breastfeeding support program. The presence of a dedicated breastfeeding facility increased EBF practice almost threefold, by an odds ratio (OR) of 2.74 and a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.34-5.64 (p<0.05). Knowledge of the breastfeeding support program increased EBF practice by almost six times (OR, 5.93; 95% CI, 1.78-19.79) (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Governments should make it obligatory for employers to offer a breastfeeding support program and a dedicated breastfeeding facility at the workplace as these simple measures significantly increase EBF.

Review for Retrospective Exposure Assessment Methods Used in Epidemiologic Cancer Risk Studies of Semiconductor Workers: Limitations and Recommendations

  • Park, Donguk
    • Safety and Health at Work
    • /
    • v.9 no.3
    • /
    • pp.249-256
    • /
    • 2018
  • This article aims to provide a systematic review of the exposure assessment methods used to assign wafer fabrication (fab) workers in epidemiologic cohort studies of mortality from all causes and various cancers. Epidemiologic and exposure-assessment studies of silicon wafer fab operations in the semiconductor industry were collected through an extensive literature review of articles reported until 2017. The studies found various outcomes possibly linked to fab operations, but a clear association with the chemicals in the process was not found, possibly because of exposure assessment methodology. No study used a tiered assessment approach to identify similar exposure groups that incorporated manufacturing era, facility, fab environment, operation, job and level of exposure to individual hazardous agents. Further epidemiologic studies of fab workers are warranted with more refined exposure assessment methods incorporating both operation and job title and hazardous agents to examine the associations with cancer risk or mortality.

Applicability Investigation for the Odor Source Tracking Approach using the Wind Field and the Fingerprinting (바람장 및 Fingerprint를 이용한 악취추적기법 활용가능성 평가)

  • Na, Kyung-Ho;Bak, Yong-Chul;Jang, Young-Gi
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
    • /
    • v.23 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-13
    • /
    • 2007
  • This study was carried out to evaluate the applicability of the odor source tracking using wind field and fingerprint as a solution tool. First of all, CALMET and HYSPLIT modeling system, and database of odor discharge companies were utilized to track odor from industrial complexes. Secondly, industrial odor fingerprint was made by listing on the 19 domestic industries, and compared with foreign data to assess the representative, and thus the similarity was 86.7%. On the modeling experiment, Sihwa industrial complex did not show any difference because the matching rates of day and night were 49.5% and 50.0%, respectively. However, the Banwol and Sihwa industrial complexes did show some differences due to odor facility density. Separately, in this study, odor samples were obtained from 10 odor discharging companies, located in the Sihwa and Banwol industrial complexes, They were compared with the results of odor tracking modeling. The matched companies were 4 of 10 by three cases of tracking, while the fingerprint and industry of odor monitoring networks and companies matched each other. Therefore, this study confirmed the approach applicability of source tracking system using the fingerprint.

Current Status and Barriers to Health Care Services for Nursing Home Residents: Perspectives of Staffs in Korean Nursing Homes (노인요양시설 건강지원서비스 현황과 장애요인: 포커스 집단 면접)

  • Park, Yeon-Hwan;Bang, Hwal Lan;Kim, Ga Hye;Oh, Seieun;Jung, Young-Il;Kim, Hongsoo
    • Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
    • /
    • v.27 no.4
    • /
    • pp.418-427
    • /
    • 2015
  • Purpose: Focus group interviews were conducted to explore the current status and barriers of health care services in nursing home from the viewpoint of staffs taking care of nursing home residents. Methods: A qualitative thematic analysis using the focus group interview method was used. A total of 32 health care professionals (19 nurses and 13 social workers) from thirteen nursing homes in South Korea attended (5 focus groups) in 2014. Results: The two main themes were identified: 'minimal health care services that left personal care needs unmet' which has three subthemes of 'stereotyped and fragmented care by types of care providers', 'medically-oriented health care services' and 'health care services mixed with social or recreational programs'; and 'barriers to proper and timely care in nursing homes' with four subthemes including 'unmet care needs due to cognitive dysfunction or lack of expression', 'care guides or tools not suitable for long-term care facilities', 'health care needs that are beyond the facility's care boundary', and 'care delay due to lack of understanding on the older adult's status'. Conclusion: The findings from this study should help health care policy makers to recognize the factors that influence health care services and provide direction for nurses and other staffs involved in supporting health care services for nursing home residents.

Bicycle Custody Place Provision in the Station (역사내 자전거보관소 설치 방안)

  • Lee, Pil-Sin;Oh, Suk-Soon
    • Proceedings of the KSR Conference
    • /
    • 2011.10a
    • /
    • pp.1468-1477
    • /
    • 2011
  • Central government and local self-governing bodies are actively promoting bicycle-riding as a solution for transportation, environment, energy and health. They put lot of efforts in the practice of bicycle-related policies such as building bicycle-related infrastructure and creating task force team to improve the bicycle-related systems. However, there is no substantive improvement in the city rail operation agencies regarding the bicycle-related facilities and operation. The expansion of bicycle-related infrastructure in city rail stations is urgently required considering the increase in demands from the bicycle-riders for the facility and bicycle-related service improvement. Accordingly, this study suggests a bicycle-riding vitalization plan linking the city rail and bicycle by providing with a bicycle custody place in the city rail stations which will have comprehensive convenience facilities including the safe-keeping facility for bicycles.

  • PDF